what's your definition of FREEDOM???

The problem I have is that freedoms are finite and occasionally mutually exclusive. In an environment where air, food, water, and energy are all limited (and do not exist in renewable quantity enough to satisfy a third of the current population, much less the current population), people have to police their own behavior... and where they don't, it may have to be done for them to order to protect someone else's freedoms/life.

What happens if there is only one unit of food, and two people? Whose freedom to eat it is chosen, and based on what? What if the freedom of the CEO to make billions of dollars for him or herself comes at the cost of the income of tens or hundreds of thousands of laborers across the country? What happens if my freedom to sit alone on a rock and watch a sunset impinges on someone else's desire to do the same? Freedom comes with responsibility; and without exercising responsibility, there really is nothing of quality to be had from what freedoms you can find.
 
This might gain some criticism but I feel freedom is a world where all the rules have been removed.... if I say my coconut is worth two of your goldfish then that’s just how it is.... if you say your gold fish are worth far more than my coconut then that’s just how it is... honestly I feel that true freedom in our imperfect state would equal chaos
 
Freedom for me is when an outfit comes together (with not much thought) and it turns out to be the perfect look for the occasion. It frees me up and energises me to go out into the big bad world and make small talk with people I hardly ever see. Wonderful!!
 
It's something I yell to stick it to Longshanks(After sticking it to his daughter in-law- if ya know what I mean) when I'm getting eviscerated after having my joints pulled out.
 
Freedom is being able to walk into the woods, cutting down some trees,building a house making a garden without needing to pay property tax, getting permits or be charged because my house was not built by a licensed carpenter, for my own safety.
 
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I think it's just plain and simply being you. You are always told what to do, how to be, why to act and all sorts of things that will limit your sense of freedom. Freedom is overcoming those things.
 
Freedom is an exercise in comparing and contrasting different cages. If you're told you're free, chances are you're not. But if you feel free, then maybe that's all that matters.
 
flufiang said:
Maybe it’s all a mental game, maybe you’re only as free as your mind allows you to be.....
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Here's a little challenge for you. Suppose you are "only as free as your mind allows you to be". Does that not imply that you are either completely free or completely unfree? On your definition, either your mind is constitutive of your free will, and then you are completely free; or it is not, and you are completely unfree.

If you really do believe that the mind is a separate entity, a kind of parallel subject existing alongside the self, why would it ever give the self any freedom? This does not seem to hold logically. I'm only teasing you by the way, or rather thinking out loud :)
 
Constant_Overstimulation said:
long story short...i'm in the middle of writing a story...and 2 of the characters go into a detailed discussion on what they think it truly means to be free...

it could be spiritual freedom, religious freedom, personal freedom, expressive freedom, whatever.


so the question is, to you, WHAT IS FREEDOM???
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great question. so the goal is freedom. the purpose of freedom is to be able to do what I want, when I want, with who I want, how much I want, for any reason I want, to be able to pursue my dreams/desires. to be intellectually and emotionally fulfilled. to enjoy life, to appreciate all of life's beauty.
 
Firegrace said:
great question. so the goal is freedom. the purpose of freedom is to be able to do what I want, when I want, with who I want, how much I want, for any reason I want, to be able to pursue my dreams/desires. to be intellectually and emotionally fulfilled. to enjoy life, to appreciate all of life's beauty.
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Don't you think freedom is sometimes the ability to resist doing what your unconscious wants you to do? :)

Edit: I should have said "the impulses of your unconscious" to avoid the ghost in the machine...
 
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Ren said:
Don't you think freedom is sometimes the ability to resist doing what your unconscious wants you to do? :)
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that's complete freedom right? we could get into surrender, detachment, and total independence from any and everything. freedom from the unconscious, the conscious, God, even (if that's considerable), and freedom from wanting to be free. How meta can we get? freedom from wanting to be free of being free. lol :P
 
Ren said:
If you really do believe that the mind is a separate entity, a kind of parallel subject existing alongside the self, why would it ever give the self any freedom?
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Because my mind loves me and I love it(him?), I feed it coffee and steak and brandy and nicotine- the bastard owes me.
 
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